These embodiments relate to sun visors that can be moved and provide light to an occupant of a vehicle, and more particularly to a sun visor that can provide illumination to the interior of the vehicle the entire time the visor is being moved from a first or resting position to a second position.
Vehicle drivers encounter sunlight when driving. This necessitated the development of a device to block some of the sun's rays without impeding the drivers view of the travel path. Sun visors were developed and have continued to be improved upon. The sun visor is mounted generally to the ceiling of the vehicle by an L-shaped rod. The rod allows the visor to pivot on a vertical axis and rotate on a horizontal axis. Some sun visors are even able to be translated or slid in a horizontal direction on the rod such that the user can adjust the position of the visor left to right based upon the angle of the offending rays of sun.
Other sun visors provide a mirror on one side of the visor which allows the passenger or driver (when stopped) to apply makeup or adjust hair and clothing and perform other things that an individual may wish to do in front of a mirror. It is quite difficult to review makeup or hair when there is no light from outside of the vehicle such as at night and the interior lighting in some background art provides less than desirable light intensity for viewing. It would be beneficial if the sun visor had a lighting source that would shine on the user as they viewed themselves in the mirror of the sun visor.
Some background art shows the use of a light source in a sun visor such that a user may turn on the light and view themselves in the mirror. Much of the background art utilizes a separate switch to turn the light source on and off and this can only generally be done with a sun visor in a single fixed position. In other words the sun visor is fixed in one position to simplify the costs and assembly of the wiring and light source.
Many users do appreciate the benefits of having a sun visor that can translate or slide along a rod horizontally to customize the position of the sun visor left to right relative to the offending sun's rays. These users would also desire a light source for viewing themselves in the mirror contained within the sun visor. The desire to view a mirror located in a sun visor with a light source that can be viewed at all locations of the sun visor complicates the mechanics, assembly and costs of sun visors in general. To date there have been few cost effective, relatively simple to assemble, reliable, functional devices that provide a sliding sun visor in which the lighting will illuminate at all positions of the sun visor when it is translated or slid to various user selected positions between a first position and a second position.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a sun visor that illuminates and is capable of illumination when the visor is translated from a first or storage position to a second or user adjusted position and at any point there between.